


for a thousand more

by the_crownless_queen



Series: Sapphic September 2019 [11]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F, Sapphic September, Sapphic September 2019, kind of bittersweet, look if canon still won't give me River I'm gonna have to do it myself, made up alien planets, running into your wife when she's dead to you and also doesn't know who you are
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-04
Updated: 2020-06-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:53:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24544951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_crownless_queen/pseuds/the_crownless_queen
Summary: She’s about to spin around and head back to the Tardis when she spies a flash of blond from the corner of her eyes.Her hearts start to race — finally, something interesting.Her hearts stop and start again.“River!” she shouts, unable to stop herself from grinning widely.
Relationships: The Doctor/River Song, Thirteenth Doctor/River Song
Series: Sapphic September 2019 [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1473389
Comments: 12
Kudos: 132





	for a thousand more

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Day 6 of Sapphic September, Fireworks. This prompt took me forever to write for, holy shit! So glad it's finally over and done with.  
> I love this pairing and need more of it. Can't believe I ever did not ship River and the Doctor together :O  
> Hope you guys enjoy this! It was fun to write! :)

“What do you say, girl? Just a quick trip while we wait for the fam to get back?” The Doctor grins as the Tardis lights up — it’s good to know that some things never really change.

She laughs. “I’ll take that as a yes then,” she shouts at the console, hitting the randomizer.

Her hearts race in excitement as she pulls herself towards the control screens. “Now where did you take us?” she asks, half to herself, half to the Tardis.

“Snassnalass,” she reads off the display, her eyebrows arching up her forehead. “Haven’t been here in…” She frowns, trying to count up, but she quickly gives up after reaching a hundred years.

She pats the console, still grinning. “Well, this should be fun. I love Snassnalass,” she pointedly says to the empty room, despite remembering nothing about the planet except that it has… a sun, and a breathable atmosphere.

She shrugs. These are the important bits anyway. Anything else she can figure out on the go.

Hopefully, this time there won’t be any angry natives chasing her off for something one of her previous incarnations had done.

Nor any  _ hungry _ people, which come to think of it has been less common but still too much of a thing for comfort.

* * *

Snassnalass, the Doctor is somewhat disquieted to discover, is  _ boring. _ The large, sweeping forest she’s found herself wandering is gorgeous — she’s rather sure some of those trees are more sentient than they look, too — but it is also very quiet.

And empty.

“That explains why I can’t remember it,” she mutters to herself as she kicks a rock, half idly hoping doing so will literally unearth a conspiracy for her to thwart.

No such luck, sadly.

“Probably for the best, though,” she adds in an upbeat mutter. “Wouldn’t want the fam to think I’ve ditched them to go on a proper adventure.”

… Maybe she can just skip ahead a couple of days and show up after they’re all done doing whatever it is they’re doing. Jaz would know, but the Doctor has been through more awkward situations before.

She’s about to spin around and head back to the Tardis when she spies a flash of blond from the corner of her eyes.

Her hearts start to race —  _ finally, _ something interesting.

The figure collides with her in a whirlwind of hair, and the Doctor sputters as she spins around, catching herself and her assailant on a tree so they don’t fall.

She rights herself quickly and finally catches sight of the woman who ran into her, and  _ oh. _

Her hearts stop and start again.

“River!” she shouts, unable to stop herself from grinning widely.

Snassnalass is suddenly looking up.

River curses to herself and stills. She’s not looking at the Doctor though, rather focusing intently on the part of the woods she came from, and taking the cue from her, the Doctor quietens too.

The wind ruffling through the trees and River’s heavy breathing are the only sounds they can hear, and River relaxes, pasting on a friendly smile that  _ somehow _ still does  _ things _ to the Doctor’s insides.

It’s really unfair.

“Are you one of my students?” River asks, her left eyebrow arched curiously. She’s multitasking — checking what looks to be a map on her vortex manipulator while she speaks.

“What? No!” the Doctor sputters, before cursing herself for letting go of what would have been the perfect excuse. “I…” her mind races as she scrambles to find a new one. “I saw you at a conference. Once. Well, maybe twice.” She tugs at her earlobe sheepishly.

River’s suspicion eases a little, and her eyes lighten as she smirks, her eyes flicking up and down the Doctor’s body in a way that still stupidly makes her want to preen. “Really?” River asks, arching a perfect eyebrow. “I’d have remembered you, I think.”

Throat suddenly a little dry, the Doctor replies, “I… sat in the back row. You probably missed me.”

She hadn’t, of course — but then again, the Doctor had been a different man back then.

It’s impossible to say how long they could have stood there, staring at each other — well, the Doctor was staring, River was busy checking on the contents of her pockets — if not for the shouting that suddenly comes from the forest.

“And that’s my cue!” River says, starting to sprint away.

The Doctor follows, grinning. “Friends of yours?” she asks, almost off-handedly, as a group of men breaks through the trees.

“Not exactly,” River replies, laughing. “Come on, there’s a festival not far, we can lose them there.”

River’s right — of course she is. They love their pursuers quickly, even before they reach the festival, and they could go their separate ways already, but, well…

It’s a festival, and it’s River. How’s the Doctor supposed to resist?

* * *

Days on Snassnalass are either very short or she came at the tail end of one, because by the time they’ve reached the festival — taking place on the outskirts of what looks to be an odd mix of a rural Earth village and a very technologically advanced city — the sun has mostly dipped below the horizon, painting the sky in gorgeous hues of violets and reds shot through with brilliant, scintillating stars.

“What’s this festival for?” the Doctor asks, torn between keeping looking at River —  _ River!!  _ — and at the vibrant life of the festival.

River smiles. “Life,” she says. She winks. “That’s what they call their sun, by the way — now come on, we’re just on time for the good part!” And she grabs the Doctor’s hand to pull her along and toward the crowd slowly gathering close by.

The Doctor’s hearts skip a beat — this can’t be good for them — and she eagerly follows, unable to keep her grin off her lips.

They get there just as it starts, and the Doctor’s questions die on her lips as the sky lights up with fire.

Or, well, fireworks.

“Oh,” she says, her eyes wide as she takes in the huge, impossible shapes blooming on the dark sky.

“Impressive, isn’t it?”

When the Doctor turns around, River’s eyes are crinkled up with amusement.

“Yes,” the Doctor replies, her throat suddenly tight. She’s not really talking about the fireworks anymore (though they are, of course, impressive).

River’s confident facade falters in confusion before she builds it back up, and the Doctor’s hearts  _ ache. _ She wishes she could just reach out and tell her wife,  _ “It’s me, look, I’m here!” _ and then they’d joke about her ‘joining the sisterhood’, as Missy would have said, but… timelines.

(Rassilon, why does she have to get so maudlin  _ now?) _

“Well, this is me,” River is saying, unaware of the Doctor’s inner turmoil, and the Doctor’s mouth runs dry.

“What?” she asks, stunned. 

“It’s been fun,  _ doll _ —” she winks again, putting on a very bad fake accent that still has the Doctor let out a burst of laughter “— but I’ve got to go.” She taps her vortex manipulator with her index and pats her pockets.

And if the Doctor had been a younger man, she’d have nicked whatever was in those pockets already. They’d have bickered about it too, and the mercenaries — or whoever was after River — would have caught them before they’d even reached this festival, and…

The Doctor cuts that train of thought before it can go any further. She is not a younger man.

Instead, she says, “Do you really have to go?” Her voice lifts in an almost whine, but she doesn’t care — this might be the last time she sees River, and although it kills her that River doesn’t  _ know _ her, it is still so, so worth it.

River looks startled she’d asked, and she pauses, considering. Licks her lips. She looks back toward the now distant forest, sighs, then at the sky, now painted in vibrant reds and greens that shimmer off into spiraling gold before looking down at her vortex manipulator again.

“Well,” she says, “I guess I can stay for a little while longer.”

The Doctor can’t help the grin threatening to split off her face. “Really?”

River snorts out a laugh. “I’ve always wanted to see this festival,” she explains with a hum.

She probably means for it to be dismissive, of course, but her voice has that teasing lilt to it that means she’s not being entirely truthful, and she shuffles closer as she speaks. Her eyes look happy.

She’s here and she’s alive and they’re  _ standing together on the same planet again. _ It’s not a gift the Doctor had ever expected out of this new life, but it is one she will always be so very grateful to the universe for.

**Author's Note:**

> (yes I totally adhere to the hc that Thirteen is River's wife as mentioned in the Husbands of River Song and not even canon will make me think otherwise)


End file.
